"Belin well held his honour, And wisely was good governour."
says Peter de Langtoft, and his translator, Robert de Brunn; and they assign, among the reasons why he merited such mention at their hands, the following:
"His land Britaine he yode throughout, And ilk county beheld about; Beheld the woods, water and fen. No passage was maked for men, No highe street thorough countrie, Ne to borough ne citié. Thorough mooris, hills and valleys He madé brigs and causeways, Highe street for common passage, Brigs over water did he stage."
This notice of the old chroniclers' pioneer king of Britain has again and again recurred to us as we have had occasion to narrate the energetic doings of the first ruler of Upper Canada, here and previously. What Britain was when Belin and his Celts were at work, Canada was in the days of our immediate fathers—a trackless wild. That we see our country such as it is to-day, approaching in many respects the beauty and agricultural finish of Britain itself, is due to the intrepid men who faced without blenching the trials and perils inevitable in a first attack on the savage fastnesses of nature.
A succinct but good account is given of the origin of Yonge Street in Mr. Surveyor General D. W. Smith's Gazetteer of 1799. The advantages expected to accrue from the new highway are clearly set forth; and though the anticipations expressed have not been fulfilled precisely in the manner supposed, we see how comprehensive and really well-laid were the plans of the first organizer of Upper Canada.
"Yonge Street," the early Gazetteer says, "is the direct communication from York to Lake Simcoe, opened during the administration of his Excellency Major-General Lieut.-Governor Simcoe, who, having visited Lake Huron by Lake aux Claies (formerly also Ouentaronk, or Sinion, and now named Lake Simcoe), and discovered the harbour of Penetanguishene (now Gloucester) to be fit for shipping, resolved on improving the communication from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron, by this short route, thereby avoiding the circuitous passage of Lake Erie. This street has been opened in a direct line, and the road made by the troops of his Excellency's corps. It is thirty miles from York to Holland's river, at the Pine Fort called Gwillimbury, where the road ends; from thence you descend into Lake Simcoe, and, having passed it, there are two passages into Lake Huron; the one by the river Severn, which conveys the waters of Lake Simcoe into Gloucester Bay; the other by a small portage, the continuation of Yonge Street, to a small lake, which also runs into Gloucester Bay. This communication affords many advantages; merchandize from Montreal to Michilimackinac may be sent this way at ten or fifteen pounds less expense per ton, than by the route of the Grand or Ottawa River; and the merchandize from New York to be sent up the North and Mohawk Rivers for the north-west trade, finding its way into Lake Ontario at Oswego (Fort Ontario), the advantage will certainly be felt of transporting goods from Oswego to York, and from thence across Yonge Street, and down the waters of Lake Simcoe into Lake Huron, in preference to sending it by Lake Erie."
We now again endeavour to effect a start on our pilgrimage of retrospection up the long route, from the establishment of which so many public advantages were predicted in 1799.
The objects that came to be familiar to the eye at the entrance to Yonge Street from Lot Street were, after the lapse of some years, on the west side, a large square white edifice known as the Sun Tavern, Elliott's; and on the east side, the buildings constituting Good's Foundry.
The open land to the north of Elliott's was the place generally occupied by the travelling menageries and circuses when such exhibitions began to visit the town.